To compare the best web hosts, we hosted the same WordPress website on each one and tested performance, customer service, and value for money. Check out the results here.
RU-TLD started out in 2008 to provide domain registration and hosting services in Russia and abroad. Since then, it has notched up several achievements including signing an agreement with leading Dutch company Leaseweb to lease servers in the EvoSwitch multi-tenant data center in Haarlem. It has entered into other agreements (e.g., with Microsoft) and has deployed its own geographically distributed DNS servers.
RU-TLD now offers virtual and dedicated servers along with domain registration and other I.T. services. Its website can be switched between the English and Russian languages.
Features and Ease of Use
RU-TLD offers five Linux (KVM) virtual servers and four Windows virtual servers along with dedicated servers located in the U.S.A., the Netherlands, Germany, China (Hong Kong), and Singapore.
The Linux virtual server plans provide you with:
- 1 GB to 16 GB RAM
- 40 GB to 160 GB SSD storage
- 1-core to 16-core
- 3 TB to 5 TB transfer
- Free IPv6
Since this is a provider of servers rather than shared hosting, it’s more about the hardware and the infrastructure than the value-adding features.
Performance and reliability are assured thanks to the use of IPv6 (for more efficient packet processing), SSD storage (which is better than HDD), CDN (for improved page loading speeds and protection against some security threats), and N+1 to 2N power redundancy (for less chance of downtime).
Pricing and Support
RU-TLD’s Linux servers (but not Windows servers) are cheap. Even the starting Windows plan is 3-4 times as expensive as the Linux plan, but it’s not unusual for Windows servers to cost extra.
You can pay for plans in various currencies (U.S. dollars, euros, or Russian rubles) via various methods (credit cards, PayPal, Qiwi, WebMoney, and OKPAY) on billing cycles from quarterly to triennial. Longer billing cycles give bigger discounts, but there is no money-back guarantee (as far as I can see) to make you feel better about making a major commitment.
Renting a server from RU-TLD gives you Gold SLA level support to address your questions, concerns, and equipment failures. You can contact the support team via telephone, ticket, email, ICQ, or Skype, but (unfortunately) I received no response to my pre-sales support questions.
Having a help system is a positive aspect of this provider, but it appears outdated, and some of the content is exclusively available in Russian, which may be a limitation.
